India's Muslim-majority islands slam government push to ban meat meals

Man prepares shawarma at a restaurant in the city of Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala, India, on February 11, 2020. (Photo by Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via AP)
Short Url
Updated 14 July 2021
Follow

India's Muslim-majority islands slam government push to ban meat meals

  • Meat ban was stayed in June by the Kerala High Court that gave local government two weeks to file counter-affidavit
  • On Monday, the local administration justified the move by saying islanders needed to eat more fruits

NEW DELHI: Residents in the Muslim-majority archipelago of Lakshadweep off the coast of Kerala have slammed the Indian government's renewed push to ban meat meals from local schools, which follows a slew of controversial regulations introduced by the region's Hindu administrator.

Lakshadweep islands lie in the Arabian Sea, about 200 miles off the south-western coast of Kerala state. While some 96 percent of its 70,000 people are Muslim, since December it has been governed by Praful Khoda Patel, a politician from the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Patel's other regulations, which locals see as targeting their culture, include a proposed cow slaughter ban and changes in land development rules that would allow the government to take over any land for infrastructure projects. A preventive detention law, in the region with one of the lowest crime rates in the country, was introduced by Patel in January.

While the meat meal ban was stayed by the Kerala High Court on June 22, the court gave the government two weeks to file its counter-affidavit. On Monday, Patel's administration justified the move by saying that islanders needed to eat more fruits.

"We will go up to the Supreme Court to defend the identity of the islands. We will fight with all our strength to save it," Dr. P. Koya former provincial commissioner and a leader of the ongoing Save Lakshadweep Campaign against Patel's administrative reforms, told Arab News on Wednesday.

"Children have been given high protein non-vegetarian food for years, which comes under the budget. Then why ban them?" Dr. Koya said. "Why were no local stakeholders taken into confidence? This is a disrespect to democracy."

The local government justified the meat meal ban by saying in the counter-affidavit it was seeking to close the region's remaining dairy farms because they were "suffering losses and catered to only a few people."

While local officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment, former member of the Minicoy Island administration Save Lakshadweep Campaign, activist Hassan Bodumukka, said as the farms were a government enterprise: "they are meant to serve people not to earn a profit."

“Tell me which government enterprise is running on profit, be it railways or airlines or any other ventures," he told Arab News. "Since it’s a Muslim majority area and we all know the anti-minority agenda of the BJP. They just want to consolidate majoritarian politics at the cost of the people of the island."

For experts, forcing Lakshadweep to embrace meat-free diets would amount to an attack on their identity.

“Lakshadweep residents are 100 per cent meat-eaters," K.A. Shaji, a political analyst in Kerala, said. "Their eating habits have evolved over generations. It is a cultural attack."


Monsoon-loving Indian expats chase rain in UAE desert

Updated 10 min 8 sec ago
Follow

Monsoon-loving Indian expats chase rain in UAE desert

  • After Muhammed Sajjad moved from India to the United Arab Emirates a decade ago, he missed his native Kerala’s monsoon season, so he embarked on an unlikely quest: finding rain in the desert

SHARJAH: After Muhammed Sajjad moved from India to the United Arab Emirates a decade ago, he missed his native Kerala’s monsoon season, so he embarked on an unlikely quest: finding rain in the desert.
Using satellite imagery, weather data and other high-tech tools, the amateur meteorologist tracks potential rainfall spots across the desert country and, along with other Indians nostalgic for the monsoon season, chases the clouds in search of rain.
“When I came to UAE in 2015, in August, it... was peak monsoon time” in Kerala, the 35-year-old estate agent told AFP, adding that he had struggled to adjust to the change of climate.
“So I started to search about the rainy condition in UAE and I came to know that there is rain happening in UAE during peak summer,” he said, adding: “I started to explore the possibility to chase the rain, enjoy the rain.”
Each week, he forecasts when and where rain might fall and posts a suggested rendezvous to the 130,000 followers of his “UAE Weatherman” page on Instagram.
He regularly posts footage of his rain expeditions out into the desert, hoping to bring together “all rain lovers who miss rain.”
Last weekend, he headed out into the desert from Sharjah at the head of a convoy of about 100 vehicles.
But nothing is certain. The rain “may happen, it may not happen,” Sajjad said. But when it does, “it is an amazing moment.”


After driving in the desert for hours, the group arrived at the designated spot just as a downpour started.
The rain lovers leapt out of their vehicles, their faces beaming as the rain droplets streamed down their cheeks in a rare reminder of home.
“They feel nostalgic,” Sajjad said proudly.
Most UAE residents are foreigners, among them some 3.5 million Indians who make up the Gulf country’s largest expatriate community.
Despite the use of advanced cloud-seeding technology, the UAE has an average yearly rainfall of just 50 to 100 milliliters.
Most of it falls during short but intense winter storms.
“While long-term averages remain low, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events has been increasing and is due to global warming,” said Diana Francis, a climate scientist who teaches at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi.
In the summer, the country often gets less than five milliliters of rain, she said, usually falling away from the coastal areas where most of the population lives.
So rain-seekers must drive deep into the desert interior to have a chance of success.
An Indian expatriate, who gave her name only as Anagha and was on her first expedition into the desert last weekend, said she was “excited to see the rain.”
“All of my family and friends are enjoying good rain and good climate and we are living here in the hot sun,” she said.
The UAE endured its hottest April on record this year.
By contrast, April last year saw the UAE’s heaviest rains in 75 years, which saw 259.5 mm of rainfall in a single day.
Four people died and the commercial hub of Dubai was paralyzed for several days. Scientists of the World Weather Attribution network said the intense rains were “most likely” exacerbated by global warming.
“We couldn’t enjoy it because it was flooded all over UAE,” Anagha said. “This time we are going to see... rain coming to us in the desert.”


Chinese aircraft carriers in Pacific show country’s ‘expansionist’ aims, Taiwan says

Updated 45 sec ago
Follow

Chinese aircraft carriers in Pacific show country’s ‘expansionist’ aims, Taiwan says

  • China has been flexing its muscles by sending an unusually large number of naval and coast guard vessels through a swathe of East Asian waters

TAIPEI: The two Chinese aircraft carriers spotted conducting simultaneous operations in the Pacific for the first time send a political message about the country’s “expansionist” aims, Taiwan Defense Minister Wellington Koo said on Wednesday.

Japan’s defense minister said the previous day that the appearance of the Chinese aircraft carriers signified Beijing’s intention to further widen its capabilities beyond its borders.

Koo said the armed forces had a “full grasp” of the carriers’ movements.

“Crossing from the first island chain into the second island chain sends a definite political message and their expansionist nature can be seen,” he told reporters in Taipei.

The first island chain refers to an area that runs from Japan down to Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo, while the second island chain spreads further out into the Pacific to include places like the US territory of Guam.

China’s navy, which has been honing its abilities to operate farther and farther from the country’s coast, said on Tuesday the carrier operations were a “routine training” exercise that did not target specific countries or regions. China operates two carriers, with a third undergoing sea trials.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, keeps a close watch on Chinese military movements given the regular drills and war games Beijing stages around the island, and has been modernizing its weapons to better face the People’s Liberation Army.

Taiwan Air Force Chief of Staff Lee Ching-jan, speaking to lawmakers later on Wednesday, said a dozen or so of 66 Lockheed Martin F-16V fighter jets ordered from the United States should arrive this year, with the rest in 2026.

“The US side was optimistic about next year’s scheduled delivery at last month’s meeting on the project, and was very optimistic about the delivery of more than 10 aircraft this year,” he said.

Taiwan has complained about delivery delays for the jets, which have advanced avionics, weapons and radar systems to better face down the Chinese air force, including its J-20 stealth fighter.

Since May, China has been flexing its muscles by sending an unusually large number of naval and coast guard vessels through a swathe of East Asian waters, according to security documents and officials, in moves that have unnerved regional capitals.

Japan’s defense ministry confirmed the two carriers, Liaoning and Shandong, were operating in separate areas of the Pacific on Saturday, both near remote southern islands belonging to Japan.

Earlier, Japan said the Liaoning sailed within its exclusive economic zone near Minamitorishima, a remote island east of Iwo Jima.


Australian murder suspect denies drying deadly mushrooms

Updated 16 min 2 sec ago
Follow

Australian murder suspect denies drying deadly mushrooms

  • Erin Patterson denies all charges in the trial, which has made headlines worldwide
  • She says the beef-and-pastry dish, which she cooked in individually sized portions, was poisoned by accident

SYDNEY: An Australian woman accused of murdering three people with death cap mushrooms denied Wednesday that she turned the fungi into dry powder for the fatal meal.

Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering her estranged husband’s parents and aunt in July 2023 by spiking a beef Wellington lunch with the mushrooms.

She is also accused of attempting to murder a fourth lunch guest – her husband’s uncle – who survived the dish after a long stay in hospital.

Patterson denies all charges in the trial, which has made headlines worldwide.

She says the beef-and-pastry dish, which she cooked in individually sized portions, was poisoned by accident.

Three months before the lunch, phone records placed Patterson in the Victoria state township of Loch, where a sighting of death cap mushrooms had been posted online, the court heard.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers alleged that within two hours of finding death cap mushrooms in Loch, Patterson bought a dehydrator to use on the fungi.

Patterson admitted to buying the dehydrator.

But she denied purchasing it to dry the death cap mushrooms or that she went to Loch to find the dangerous fungi.

A month later, phone records placed Patterson in a second town in the area, Outtrim, just days after a sighting of death cap mushrooms had been posted online, the court heard.

Patterson denied she went to the area to find the fungi, but said she may have driven by the area.

Rogers suggested Patterson “blitzed” the death cap mushrooms into a powder in order to hide them in the meal.

“Disagree,” Patterson said.

The court heard Patterson had told people that she served the beef Wellington leftovers to her children a day after the lunch, as her sickened guests lay in hospital.

The accused said she scraped off the mushroom and pastry from the dish because her children were fussy eaters.

The prosecutor asked Patterson why she would feed leftovers to her children, while knowing or suspecting that the same meal had put her guests in hospital.

“I didn’t know or suspect that,” Patterson replied.

The prosecutor accused her of telling a “lie about feeding the leftovers” because it gave her “some distance from a deliberate poisoning.”

Patterson replied: “I don’t see how it could, but I disagree.”

The home cook had also invited her estranged husband Simon to join the family lunch at her secluded home in the Victoria state farm village of Leongatha.

But Simon turned down the invitation saying he felt uncomfortable going, the court heard previously. The pair were long estranged but still legally married.

Simon’s parents Don and Gail, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson, attended the lunch. All three were dead within days.

Heather’s husband Ian fell gravely ill but recovered.

The trial in Morwell, southeast of Melbourne, is expected to last another two weeks.


US confirms Trump’s willingness to mediate Kashmir dispute after India-Pakistan ceasefire

Updated 1 min 36 sec ago
Follow

US confirms Trump’s willingness to mediate Kashmir dispute after India-Pakistan ceasefire

  • State Department says US president has taken steps to resolve ‘generational conflicts’ across the world
  • It also confirms meetings of a Pakistani parliamentary delegation with officials in Washington recently

ISLAMABAD: The United States on Tuesday said President Donald Trump would like to mediate between India and Pakistan over the decades-old Kashmir dispute, describing such a move as consistent with his desire to resolve “generational” conflicts around the world.

The comment follows a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, announced by the US president on May 10 after a brief but intense military standoff involving fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery fire.

While tensions have eased, longstanding issues remain unresolved.

The US informed last month after the ceasefire announcement both India and Pakistan had agreed to meet at a neutral venue to address their differences, though New Delhi has so far publicly ruled out bilateral talks with Islamabad.

“I can’t speak to what’s on the mind or the plans of the President,” said State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce in response to a question about the American president’s offer to mediate after the ceasefire.

“What I do know is that I think we all recognize that President Trump in each step that he takes, it’s made to solve generational differences between countries, generational war,” she continued. “So it doesn’t – it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he’d want to manage something like that.”

Bruce maintained Trump had the ability to bring enemies “to the table to have conversations that nobody thought was possible.”

She added that she hoped “something like that” could be resolved during the current American administration’s term in office, referring to the Kashmir dispute.

In a related development, the State Department spokesperson confirmed a Pakistani parliamentary delegation led by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari met last week with senior State Department officials, including Under Secretary for Political Affairs Allison Hooker.

While she did not reveal details of the discussions, Bruce said the talks covered counterterrorism cooperation and US support for the India-Pakistan ceasefire.

The Pakistani delegation is currently visiting key global capitals to present Islamabad’s perspective on the limited war with India while lobbying the international community to press India to return to dialogue over Kashmir and other issues.
 


Former student kills 10 in Austrian high school shooting

Updated 30 min 13 sec ago
Follow

Former student kills 10 in Austrian high school shooting

  • Shooter acted alone and took his own life in the toilet at Dreierschuetzengasse high school in Graz
  • Europe has been shaken by attacks at schools and universities in recent years that were not connected to terrorism

GRAZ, Austria: Austria will observe a national day of mourning and a minute’s silence on Wednesday after a former student shot dead 10 people at a high school in an unprecedented case of gun violence that stunned the Alpine country.

The 21-year-old shooter acted alone and took his own life in the toilet at Dreierschuetzengasse high school in Graz, police said.

Investigators found a good-bye letter addressed to the suspect’s parents during a search of his residence, but it included no clues about his motive.

After arriving in Graz, Chancellor Christian Stocker described the shooting as “a national tragedy.”

“This is a dark day,” he told reporters Tuesday as he announced three days of national mourning. A minute’s silence will be observed across the country at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Wednesday.

Nine victims were immediately confirmed and a woman died later in hospital from her wounds, an official said. A 17-year-old French student was among the victims, his father said.

Twelve people suffered serious injuries and police said support was being provided to witnesses and those affected.

According to police, the alleged perpetrator was an Austrian from the Graz region who used two legally owned weapons.

He was a former student at the high school, but never finished his studies there, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told reporters.

Bouquets of flowers and candles were placed in front of the school, which has around 400 students aged between 14 and 18, and nearby businesses closed.

One resident, originally from the United States, whose children attend a nearby elementary school and kindergarten, said she was “shocked” and it was “a lot to take in.”

“In my home country it happens more often as we know, but that it happens here is unheard of,” she said, declining to give her name.

“Graz is a safe city,” said Roman Klug, 55, who said he lived close to the school that he said was “known for its openness and diversity.”

Condolences poured in from across Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that “France extends its deepest sympathy to the victims’ families, the Austrian people and Chancellor Stocker during this difficult time.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said “our thoughts are with our Austrian friends and neighbors” following the “horrific” shooting.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban offered his “deepest condolences.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “the news from Graz touches my heart,” while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her sympathies to the families of the victims following the “tragic news.”

Attacks in public are rare in Austria, which is home to almost 9.2 million people and ranks among the 10 safest countries in the world, according to the Global Peace Index.

While still less common than in the United States, Europe has been shaken by attacks at schools and universities in recent years that were not connected to terrorism.

In France, a teaching assistant was killed in a knife attack at a school in the eastern town of Nogent on Tuesday.

In January, an 18-year-old man fatally stabbed a high school student and a teacher at a school in northeastern Slovakia.

And in December, a 19-year-old man stabbed a seven-year-old student to death and injured several others at a primary school in Zagreb, Croatia.

In December 2023, an attack by a student at a university in central Prague left 14 people dead and 25 injured.

A few months earlier, a 13-year-old gunned down nine fellow classmates and a security guard at an elementary school in Belgrade.